A Different Kind of Obstacle
by rom.gurl.anna
Summary: My version of what happens when Max finds the Flock's families. Three-shot, but may be extended, depending on how it goes. Read and Review! Max POV / Fang POV ... FAX.
1. Fang

Disclaimer: I don't own Max and Fang, and I never will :

* * *

Chapter 1: 

"_Don't ever leave me again," I said in a tiny voice._

"_I won't," he promised into my hair, sounding most un-Fang-like. "I won't. Not ever."_

And I had been naive enough to believe him. I had been stupid enough to let him back into my heart. Now I found myself staring at his back as he broke his promise, leaving me broken and bleeding once again.

I wish I could scream at him, to remind him, to make him see reason. But this time there was no anger on my side, only sorrow. My lips traced his name in silence, and my heart shattered into a million pieces as he moved further and further away from me and closer and closer to _them_.

After we destroyed Itex, I took up the duty of finding everyone's parents. I didn't know how much it would hurt to see them leave me. But most of all, to see him leave. I guess, deep down, I had always thought it would be the two of us against the world, forever. It's never been so painful to be wrong.

I turned around sharply, unable to bare the sight of his retreating figure. I quickly rubbed the back of my hand against my eyes and bit my lip in order to hold back the sob building up inside my throat.

And then I took off. I just … opened my wings and took off. I didn't even tell him good-bye. I don't know how far I flew, or how long I had been in the air. By the time the sun started to set I hated my wings, I hated the fact that I could fly, I hated myself. If I wasn't like this, than we would have had a normal life, and if I would have met him, I wouldn't have lost him like I just did.

I didn't recognize the city I landed in. There weren't many bright lights so I assumed it was just some in-the-middle-of-nowhere-nothing-bad-happens-here kind of town. I walked into the first lighted building I caught sight of. It turned out to be a bar. I walked up to the counter slowly, there was no reason to hurry anymore, and sat down on one of the high stools.

"Can I get you something, sweetheart?" The man behind the counter asked politely. I guess I looked old enough to drink to him, and in the right state of mind too. I started to raise my hand to wave the question away, a polite no thank you, maybe. But I changed my mind half-way through the gesture.

"What do you have?" I asked instead. What the hell, it's not like I had much of a life to live anymore, no responsibilities or obligations. Might as well celebrate the freedom, I thought bitterly.

The bartender placed a glass of funny-looking green liquid in front of me.

"On the house," He said.

It even had an olive in it. On a different occasion I would have burst out in fits of uncontrollable laughter at the sight of it, but I picked it up and took a sip.

"You're not from around here, are you?" The man asked, interrupting my session of wallowing in self-pity. I shook my head, only half-conscious I was having a conversation with a normal human being … in a bar.

"Then might I suggest the Town-Side Inn, the hotel across the street, Miss. Travelers always enjoy their stay." He came off as sincere, so I nodded. I had to go to sleep eventually. I drowned the rest of my drink and stood up.

The alcohol, mixed with my depression was making everything seem rather unstable. It was amazing that I managed to cross the street, check into the hotel, and get up to the right room. Everything was so quaint and warm and welcoming that I wanted to scream. And I did.

I fell on the double bed in the third-floor room, shoved my face in the biggest pillow, and screamed my lungs out. After I was done, I stared at the dark ceiling for a long minute before bursting into tears. They were unstoppable by that time, and I was unsure of how I had been able to hold them in for so long. I cried and cried until the red numbers on the digital clock beside the bed blurred into one red line and I passed out from exhaustion.

Perhaps a hotel hadn't been such a good idea. Last time I was in one, Gazzy and Iggy and Nudge and Angle were sleeping in the adjacent rooms, and I was sharing a king-sized bed with Fang because they only had three stupid rooms in the stupid place.

* * *

It's been a while since I've posted anything, so feed-back would be greatly appreciated. If any of you have read "A Valium Incident, A Valium Plan" and are interested, be on the look-out for a bonus chapter for the stoty in the form ofthe one-shot: "Can You Remember?" 

Ani


	2. Max

Disclaimer: I don't own Max and Fang, and I never will. I do own Laura and Frank, but its not much consolation :

* * *

Chapter 2: 

"_Don't ever leave me again," She said in a tiny voice._

"_I won't," I promised into her hair, sounding most unlike myself. "I won't. Not ever."_

Those words were echoing though my brain, slowly drilling, drilling. I'd meant them, I really did. So why was I leaving, then? Why was I slowly walking away, silent as always, from Max's lone figure.

Because I'd finally found her, that's why. _She_'d finally found _them_, I should say. My mom and her husband. Over the last week, Max had been surprising each member of the flock with their parents. First Nudge, then Angel and Gazzy, and two days ago, Iggy. Today was my turn.

A large part of me wished that she wouldn't have told me, that she wouldn't have tracked them down. When did she have the time to anyway? I guess, deep down, I had always thought it would be the two of us against the world, forever. And that thought used to make me happy.

When I turned around she wasn't there anymore. I could barely see her outline in the distance. That was it. She just … left. She didn't even say good-bye. So I got in the shiny, black Aston Martin and let my parents drive off. For one moment I was actually mad at her, and I hurt because she just let me go, because she didn't even try to stop me.

My mom turned her head around and looked at me, a smile on her face, and I tried to show some sign of life. She looked like me. I guess it shouldn't have been so surprising. She had my hair and my eyes, but she seemed like a happier creature than I could ever be.

"It's Nick, isn't it?" She asked softly. I wasn't surprised that she called me by that name. I didn't feel like Fang all that much anymore, that chapter of my life ended when I saw Max off in the distance.

I just stared out the window as the car passed over various highways and roads. I never said a word, never moved a muscle. I felt rather empty. There was no more laughter, no more explosions, no more beautiful brown eyes. It was hard to consider that I would never have those things again. Soon the sun set, and the car stopped moving.

"This is it," My mom, Laura, said as we all got out of the car and walked to the door of some mail order house that looked more perfect and orderly than even the picture used to order it. Turns out that my new step-father was some sort of lawyer.

"Can I get you something, sweetheart?" Laura asked after I had come down from viewing the guest bedroom which would be turned into my room. I shrugged.

I found myself sitting down, a plate of, well I don't know what in front of me. There were diced things, sliced things, red stuff and green stuff, the only thing I could actually recognize was cheese melted in some places. The woman was staring at me so I took my fork and took a bite. I didn't want to be rude on my first day there.

I'm sure that the dish was perfectly appealing, but to me it was tasteless. Maybe because it could never compare to Iggy's cooking, or because it looked like something Max would make while trying to cook something completely different. Perhaps Iwas just a little depressed. Yeah, that was it, I was a _little_ depressed.

"Is everything alright, Nick?" I must have frowned or they just weren't used to such a silent person.

"Yeah. Fine." I said, but my head was screaming: How can everything be alright when she's not here? How can I ever be fine without her? "I'm going to go to bed."

"Alright." Laura said in the same tiny voice that Max had used that day. My head was swimming. I didn't notice that Frank was frowning slightly, all I wanted was to get up to that stupid room and be alone, so I could silently wallow in self-pity.

I crashed on the double bed without undressing and stared up at the dark ceiling for a long time. Then the unthinkable happened. I felt tears slide down my face. I let out a short, humorless laugh; I hadn't cried in ten years, maybe more. But I didn't stop them, or even try to wipe them away. They were oddly appropriate.

I was mourning. I had lost the best things in my life: my strange family. Hell, I had lost my life too, I let it fly away from me. My lips traced her name silently before I finally succumbed to darkness, inexplicably tired.

* * *

If anyone's interested the dish that I had Laura prepare for Fang was Orrechiette Carbonara, and Fang's parents' car is the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish that Stephenie Meyer has a link to on her websiteunder Edward's "special occasion" car. Sorry, but i couldn't get a link of either on here for some reason. 

Ani


End file.
